A/N: I'd like to dedicate this story to TeahLeafs whose own new story is the direct inspiration for this one. Thank you for the chance to work together, it's been wonderful!
Skin Deep
Author: Zorra Reed
Moonrise Inn Publications
Prologue
Fire spread from the tool shed, where it had begun as a small insignificant flame of no consequence. Stating as nothing more then an innocent thought transformed into a deadly, foolish game the spark tasted the air of freedom and grew into a malicious monster of extraordinary malice, within moments. The brittle shed and all in it were engulfed in the inferno's blaze as it ate through the aged supports. With a moan, the roof bowed and splintered, until it collapsed inward with a shutter that shook the burning walls to the foundation. New breath was given to the starving flame. It leapt with joy. Hurtling from the confines of its plate and into the vast openness of the field, its sights set upon the banquet of trees hugging the hip of the lake.
Rowen rushed from the manor, the blaze's cracking calling to him upon the wind, long before he'd seen it through the kitchen window. Still, he'd been too late to prevent the roaring beast from ingesting the small shed and had barely turned its greedy hunger from the manor itself. In another few minutes, the forest would be ablaze. Kento and Cye would be caught in the path, trapped on the trails they'd gone to explore that morning. Kento's connection with the Earth would hopefully be all the warning they'd need. For as the air had sizzled, so too would the earth, and Kento would warn Cye, and Cye would pull strength from the lake to quench the fires thirst for destruction.
Greater then Rowen's fear for the unexpected danger awaiting his comrades was a far more frightening matter that clenched at his heart like a vice. It stole the warmth from his tingling flesh as he grew numb, urging his spirit into swift action. His feet carried him across the distance as one flying across water, their toes scarcely skimming the mirror-like surface. The shed was wood, old, and beginning to rot. They used it to store their practice weapons, garden tools, and lawn furniture that had seen better days. Last winter, part of the roof had collapsed after a heavy snow and they'd patched it with sheet metal. Now that metal captured and intensified the heat, like an oven, baking all within.
For an instant, Rowen was alone in his flight, the shed seemingly beyond his reach. He faltered, his feet tangling beneath him. The ground titled. Then Sage was there at his side, steadying him with a firm grip on his arm. The blonds' presence, like an elixir spread new life back into Rowen's chilled body, warming him from within. Together they moved as one, with legs stretching out before them to run on air. Nothing else existed but the gapping doorway breathed in flame which now stood foreboding within their reach. Inside was held captive a precious treasure neither was willing to loose. Inside the inferno was Ryo, burning alive.