“They look a little ridiculous, don’t you think?” Jade asked, gazing hesitantly at a tanned man with gold paint under his eyes as he walked behind their wagon carrying a basket of fruit.
“I don’t know, I think it’s rather beautiful,” Kai said with a shrug. “Humans have always found the most curious ways to express themselves,” she added, whispering so their traveling companions wouldn’t hear.
“Wait till you see the Ara Mir women, miss.” The young man who sat back in the wagon with them laughed. “Their shirts don’t even cover their stomachs. How else can they keep cool in all that heat?”
Jade blinked, but Kai grinned. She had a feeling she was going to love this new world they’d stepped into.
The hours trudged along, and the landscape transitioned from rich vegetation to busy, small towns. Kai noticed that whenever they ventured off the main pathway to travel along back roads, the vibrancy and wealth of the surrounding area significantly decreased. They passed empty fields with dead crops, brick homes that were crumbling or caved in, women and young girls slumped on the side of the gravel, staring at their wagon with hollow eyes. Kai felt uncomfortable at their gaze, picturing her life of opulence back on Iona. She wondered if this was a product of the new king’s treatment of villages that couldn’t pay his taxes and what, if anything, was being done to help these people.
It became hard to see once night fell. Jade and Kai didn’t want to speak of what they were probably both thinking about—Aataran, the other elementals, the potential force awakening—with humans in earshot, so they sat in silence and eventually drifted off to sleep under the starlight glistening through the back of the wagon.
What felt like hours later, Jade nudged Kai awake. “Look,” she murmured, pointing outside.
Smoke rose in the distance—thick, gray clouds originating from beyond the tree line. Kai must have slept through the night and most of the morning, if the height of the sun was any indication. The stench of burning grass reached her nose, along with the unmistakable scent of fresh water.
They were nearing the River Isles.
Soon, men shouting instructions reached Kai’s ears. The horses pulling the wagon slowed then stopped completely. The leader of the caravan appeared at the back of the wagon a moment later.
“This is as far as I can take you,” he said to Kai and Jade. “There’s something going on up there, and we just want to get around it. Will you be alright?” he asked, holding his hand out to help them down.
Jade took it and leapt off the back. “Yes, our friend should be around here. Thank you again for helping us get this far,” she said with a smile, and for a moment, Kai was reminded of how exceptionally beautiful Jade was, with her luminescent golden-brown skin, amber eyes that swam with chocolate flecks, and generous curves. When Jade smiled, which was much too rare, she was the perfect image of serenity and stability, as strong as the element she wielded.
Kai stepped off the wagon fluidly and grabbed their bag, stretching. “Thank you so much. I don’t know how we could ever repay you.” She beamed at them. The man and younger boy, possibly his son, blushed and looked away nervously.
“Oh, you don’t have to worry about that. It was our pleasure,” the older man said as he took Kai’s hand and bent over as if to kiss it. A loudhmphsounded from the other side of the wagon, and the man’s wife appeared. He quickly dropped Kai’s hand and scratched his nose. “Well, ahh, good luck finding your friend,” he said with a nervous wave, practically burning under his wife’s glare.
Jade chuckled as the two of them turned their backs to the wagon. “Every single time.” She shook her head at Kai.
“What did I do?” Kai asked innocently. Her friend simply continued to laugh as they made their way toward the smoke and shouting. They had no idea what they were about to walk into, but Kai knew that Aidan had to be around there somewhere.
As they cleared the trees, they finally saw the damage. Before them was a massive expanse of land, most of which was occupied by rocky banks leading down to a large body of water. The loud, excited crashing of water hitting the rocks was music to her ears. To the far right, the Lapula River flowed to the center of the land in a rush, bounding and leaping and full of life. Its energy pulsed through Kai’s veins. Eventually, it separated into three individual strands, which continued on to her left as far as she could see.
Only now, across the River Isles from where they stood, a gaping hole marred the landscape—a crater with smoke billowing out.
From the state of the men running around the water, it looked like they had been there for hours, if not days. Many of them had small rips in their clothing and ash covering their faces. Tents had even been erected along the edge of the forest. Kai caught the beginning of a conversation between two men nearby, their clipped speech hurried and serious.
“My boys have been at it for days, but the blasted fire won’t go out.”
“But it’s not spreading, right? I just got here, and it doesn’t look like it’s even reached the trees.”
“No, it’s the strangest thing. Like it’s staying in one spot.” The more haggard of the two shook his head. “But that’s not even the craziest part.”
“What are you talking about?”
“The fire. If you get closer to that hole, you’ll see. It's shaped almost like…like a man.”
Kai and Jade looked at each other. They’d definitely found where Aidan had been slumbering. So where was he now?
The two spent the next hour walking among the workers, trying to stay out of the way while gleaning as much information as they could. They learned that five days ago, a sudden rumbling of the earth and waves of smoke rising in the distance had the men in the nearby town racing on horseback to the River Isles. The land beside the water had been blown away as if by an explosion, leaving a large hole in the ground, exposing the caves below the surface. A great fire, shaped like a tall man, rose from the earth. This was the blaze they could not put out, no matter how much water or dirt was thrown on it to cease its burning. But the two men from earlier were right: it wasn’t spreading.
All of the men agreed that it was the strangest sight they’d ever seen.
Kai knew it was no natural disaster. Aidan must have chosen to rest in the caves below Karstos a thousand years ago, knowing they were blocked off so humans never used them. When he was woken, she supposed he had burned a hole right through the ground to reach the surface.
He was always quite impulsive—and loved a grand entrance.
“Can’t you help them put it out?” Jade whispered to Kai, gesturing to the man-shaped inferno.
