Disclaimer: I do not own the ROTG universe or its original characters. This story is written within the ROTG universe. The rest of the characters belong to me.
Chapter 5: Friend or Foe
~Sandy's Side~
It's been so long since he last came to Blacksburg for his nightly routine of dream making. Coming here only seem to bring him sadness and grief as he has to be reminded that the mischievous fire spirit he adored so much will no longer visit him now. No more hearing what the fire imp has been up to. No more wisps to entertain with his sand. No more childish tricks that would annoy him but amuse him at the same time. No more laughter from the young boy of fire.
There were times when he didn't want to return to this town, but at the same time, he always felt a sense of urge to visit as well. Being the Guardian of Dreams, he had to come back here at some point. Even if it's with a heavy heart. But work related or not, he would always come back to this quiet town eventually.
It was dark out for the sun had long slid from the sky when Sandy arrived at Blacksburg. Sandy was a man that work when people were asleep after all, so such a time was not unusual for him. It was almost bed time for the children, so the young one's should be getting ready for bed by now.
Just as he was flying above the buildings while preparing his dream sand for the upcoming dream routine, Sandy caught something at the corner of his eyes. The Sandman turned around curiously and glowing in the distance was an orange and red light. Sensing that something was wrong, the man of dreams quickly flew towards it.
~Irwin's POV~
Crash!
"WILL!"
Right before my eyes, the floor above came crashing onto the stairs where Will was standing on. Everything happened so fast, yet slow, at the same time. It was like watching those slow motion effects in movies. One second, Will was standing on the stairs. The next, piles of rubble came crashing down. I immediately grabbed the boy that was with me and covered him and the girl with my body from the falling debris and burning heat of the fire. With such a forceful crash, the stairs on Will's side crumpled down and fell to the bottom floor with another loud crash. Dust and ashes blew upward, blinding my sight for a few seconds.
No... Not again...
It was like reliving my worst memories. The fear... the scream... the adrenaline... the falling rubble... Something inside of me was triggered and flash of memory of falling rubble from more than a decade ago came back to me. It was like experiencing the night the mine collapsed as Jack was buried by the falling earth and rocks again. But this time, the one being crushed by falling rubble was Will...
"Will! Will!... WILL!..." I shouted, hoping to hear a response and praying the boy was alive. But after witnessing that crash, even I feared the worse. I could feel my mind buzzing like crazy, trying to find any sign of Will.
Oh God! Please god! Not Will too! No more deaths! Don't let anything happen to Will. Just the thought of losing Will was like losing Jack all over again. I don't want to go through that again! "God damn it! WILL!"
"Already heard you the first time!" Then I heard Will's voice through the dust. A rush of relief washed over me just by hearing his voice. It was like the heaven's heard my plea and my fear was completely washed away. Oh thank god, he's alive!
As the dust cloud started to clear up, I saw Will lying on the floor above the stairs. He must've jumped back in time before the rubble came crashing down.
"Are you alright?" I called out to him with worry. I can't see from here with all this fire and dust if he was injured or not.
"I'm fine. Small scratches and maybe a bruise, but I'm A-okay," he replied as he got up. "Get the kids out of here! The girl needs medical attention now!"
"But what about you? How are you supposed to get out?!" I demanded, another panic attack was about to rise again just at the thought of leaving Will behind.
"I'll be alright. Trust me!" He tried to assure me. "I have a way to get out of here on my own."
"But..."
"Just go! HURRY!"
I was torn between getting out of here to get these kids to safety and wanting to get out with Will as well, but time was running out. I looked down at the girl in my arms and the boy holding onto shirt with fear and exhaustion. I knew what I had to do, but the feeling of almost losing Will was preventing me from leaving him. Honestly, I was scared... scared that I won't see him again.
"IRWIN!"
Will's yell knocked me out of my confused thoughts and back to the seriousness of the situation. Without much choice, I gave one last look at Will before I unwillingly turned around and ran down the stairs with the two kids with me. Will was right. They were in this fire too long and every second longer was a risk to these kids' life. I wasted too many long and precious seconds with my own dilemma.
"Will! You better get out of here! Don't you dare die on me!"
Don't you dare die like Jack...
~Will's POV~
Once I made sure Irwin ran downstairs with the kids to safety and out of sight, I quickly flew upstairs to where the roof top was. If I can get outside, then I can just fly myself away from the fire easily. The fire has already reached the top floor and was about to reach the roof. Pieces of the ceilings and floors began to crumble as the fire continued to rise upward. Finally, I spotted the exit, a thick metal door that led to the rooftop, so I sped towards it. When I tried to push it open, I discovered that it was locked.
You've got to be kidding me!? I had to split up with Irwin so he doesn't find out about my bizarre powers and flew myself all the way up here to find that the roof top door was locked?! My luck couldn't get any worse!
BOOM!
Suddenly, there was an explosion from somewhere downstairs and it shook the whole building.
Oh for the love of all things holy! Stop proving me wrong!
Due to the power of the explosion, the building was falling apart even faster than before. A gas tank must've exploded somewhere, because the explosion caused a huge wave of fire to burst upward like a volcano and heading towards me.
Thus, proving to me that all things holy hated my guts.
As I watched the vast amount of fire ram into me, the force of the blast blew the door behind me open and sent me flying right outside. I felt myself crashing onto the cement floor of the roof top and rolled over several times before I find myself smacking into something very solid and hard.
My whole body was aching in pain and my world around just lost its balance for a while. I think I hit my too many times during that roll over. Ow... I was definitely going to feel this in the morning.
But wait... I'm alive? I'm ALIVE!
Then I looked at myself...
"I'M ON FIRE!"
LITERALLY!
"OH MY HOLY GODDESS OF TWIX! I'M ON FIRE! Water! Water! I need water! I'm burning! I'm being burned ALIVE! Somebody get the fire trucks! Get the hose! Get the fire extinguisher! AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!"
I ran around like a freaked out rabbit with its tail on fire while screaming at the top of my lungs. After running and screaming for who-knows-how-long, I finally realized something. Besides the aching pain that I got from earlier, I didn't feel any burning pain...
Shouldn't I be feeling the searing pain and agony of being burnt alive right now? I checked myself again and yep, I'm still on fire, but I didn't feel any pain. So... does that mean that I'm fireproof?
So let me get this straight. If fire doesn't hurt me and I can poof create up fire on my own, can I possibly control it and make it disappear? Well, one way to find out. I concentrated hard to make the fire disappear. It's like some instinct of mine told me what to do, so I tried to feel the fire's energy, which I felt almost immediately, and willed it to go away. It took me almost a burst of a blood vessel and several seconds to finally get the fire to die down and disappear. It wasn't easy as I thought. Not sure if it was just me, but it felt like something wasn't right. Something in my mind was telling me that this should've been an easy feat, but it was like there was something interfering or preventing me from completely getting a hold of my powers.
Suddenly, I heard screams from down below and it pulled me back to reality. I ran to the edge of the roof top to look down at the crowd. The crowd were screaming and pointing at something. When I turned to look at what they were panicking about, I saw that the fire had started to spread to the building next to it. This was seriously bad! The explosion earlier must've caused some of the fire to catch onto the other building. The firemen were scrambling in panic as they try to hose down that fire while getting the people out of that building. They were working fast, but not fast enough.
Then I suddenly had an idea, but the chances of it working was still debatable. The only way to see if it will work or not was to try it out. I turned and ran to the door where the fire was spewing out and I nervously raised my hands as if trying to reach out to the flames. Like before, I tried to concentrate on trying to control the fire that was burning the buildings. Since this fire was larger than the one that was on me before, it was much harder. I could feel the large amount of energy circulation this building and it was going wild. The small fire before was like taming a cat compared to this big one. From taming a cat to a lion, I guess, but I still need to stand my ground if I want to do this right. The flames roared loudly and burned like a wild beast.
When I thought I got a hold of it and managed to get the fire to dim down, I suddenly lose control of it and the fire would go out of control again. I tried to get a hold of it once again, but it would slip out of my grasp. The fire kept fighting me like it didn't want to be controlled.
Well sorry, you blasted fire! You didn't give me a choice when you're putting lives at stake here!
"Now do what I say or I'll force you to be put out! I am the Spirit of Fire so you will do what I say!"
I don't know where the last sentence came from, but the words just left my mouth unconsciously. I could even feel a strange power and authority with those words. Then I sensed some reaction from the fire. Almost like a tremor of uneasiness. Then the next thing I knew, the fire calmed down and I had complete control of the fire again. Immediately, I slowly shrank the fire like turning the knob of a stove. Little by little the fire began to disappear until the flames were finally put out.
To the firemen and the other people down below, it just looked like the fire was finally put out with their hard working effort. The crowd began to cheer and clap for the firefighters and police officers as a job well done. Well, they did work hard to put out the fire, so they did deserve the recognition.
After being able to control the fire and stopping it from burning the next building, I finally relaxed, which made me realize how drained I was from using so much energy. My body felt very weak from exhaustion that I could barely hold myself up. My head was also getting heavy and losing focus as if I was about to black out. I fell onto my knees and used my hands from completely falling onto my face, barely keeping myself from falling over while using both my legs and arms to support myself. I could feel myself sweating and panting hard, trying to catch my breath. Definitely gonna need a good sleep after this, but I'm not even sure I could get myself home. I'm too tired to even fly myself back. My mind was starting to cloud over and it was getting hard to keep myself conscious.
While I tried to keep myself awake while figuring out what to do, I suddenly felt another presence nearby and at the corner of my eye, I noticed a golden glow. Wondering what that was, I turned my head slightly to see what the glowing light was and there I saw a golden short stumpy man, hovering in the air before me.
~Irwin's POV~
The moment I stepped outside, it was like a thick veil was lifted off of my face. Fresh air entered my lungs and I felt so refresh. Now my mind was more clearer and conscious. Never have I thought that I would miss the fresh air so much as of right now. It was hot and almost suffocating in the building.
When I ran out of the building with the two kids with me, I was almost tackled by the firemen and police officers! Three officers and two firemen came running at me and grabbed me from anywhere they could grab and pulled me away from the burning building. If I tripped, they could've still dragged me away without caring if I got up or not.
"The girl... She needs medical help!" I quickly told an officer as I was being pulled away.
Once they saw the kids, they quickly lead me to an ambulance to give the kids and me medical help. They kept asking questions like if I was hurt, are the kids injured, and the likes. I answered the questions the best I could.
Just as we reached the ambulance, a woman came running towards us with tears flowing down her eyes and her face pale white.
"Chichi! Oh my baby Chichi!" cried the woman, panic and worry in her tone. "Is she alright? Why is she sleeping? Chichi! Chichi!"
"She breathed in too much smoke," I told her. "I don't know how much, but she needs help now."
There were two EMTs in the ambulance and one of them quickly jumped out of the back of the ambulance to take the little girl into the vehicle for medical attention. The officers told the EMTs of our physical status that they got from me. Then the other EMT came to check up on the boy and pulled him into the ambulance as well. They were quick on their feet and fast with their hands as they quickly grabbed oxygen tanks and placed the mask onto the girl's mouth and nose. They also gave the an oxygen mask to the boy for him to breath into to get enough oxygen into their lungs.
"Are you their mother?" one of the EMTs asked the crying woman.
"I'm the girl's mother. The boy isn't mine, but I know him and his parents. We live in the same building," the mother replied. "Is she going to be alright?"
"We need to get her to the hospital, so please get on the vehicle," told the EMT.
The mother didn't need to be told twice. She quickly jumped into the ambulance without a second to waste.
"You too, sir," one of the EMTs called to me.
"But I'm not related to them and there's still...," I tried to explain to them that there was still Will, but the EMT already grabbed and pulled me to the vehicle without even letting me finish my sentence!
"You just entered a burning building full of smoke and your clothes are practically signed! We need to check on your physical condition and you need some oxygen to clear your lungs of smoke, so please get into the ambulance so we can get you checked up," ordered the EMT.
"But...!"
Before I could even argue back, I was pushed into the ambulance and the doors slammed shut behind me. Then the ambulance drove through the streets with the sirens blasting loudly over my angry cries of protest. All through the drive to the hospital, I couldn't think of anything else but Will. I could only hope that he was alright.
~Will's POV~
For some reason, I had this feeling I knew this man, but I can't seem to remember anything about him. He was short and had gold blond hair. He had this strange golden clothing that made me think of those one piece pajamas. Not sure if my eyes were playing tricks, but not only was this man hovering in the air, there was these golden substance flowing around the foot of the guy like a tiny sand twister.
Then suddenly, all these flashes of memories began to blow up in my head like someone just pushed the fast forward button while skipping through scenes. Flashes upon flashes of images ran through my brain like crazy, giving me a huge and painful headache. I clenched my teeth hard while trying to hold down my scream as I grasped my head in pain.
These memories that I was seeing in my mind were that of the golden man. There were ones he smiled and looked friendly as he morphed those same golden substance that looked like sand in his hand. He made many shapes like animals, stars, trains and stuff with that golden sand of his and they would come to life like magic. Then just as the first set of memories seemed to be nice, my memories started to change with ones where the man looked fierce and scary. He was attacking me and trying to capture me with his sand. The golden sand he used to use to shape animals and planes now came shooting towards me like cannon balls. There were even ones where they became whips and they could come whipping at me without mercy.
With all these confusing memories going haywire in my head, flashes of memories of him attacking me was filling my head. Fear began to rise in me as more and more memories of me fighting him began to surface. My headache was getting worse as my chest was burning up with panic. This man… who is he? Was he a friend… or an enemy? I don't know. I'm so confused! He… he must be after me. He tried to catch me before. Was he going to hurt me? He's dangerous. I'm scared. I have to get away from him. I have to get out of here... NOW!
As the glowing little man suddenly came towards without warning, my instinct kicked in out of sheer panic. I tried to get up, but I was hit with a sense of dizziness. Due to my already exhausted body, my leg gave away and I fell backwards.
"No! Go away! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" I almost screamed as I tried to push myself backwards and crawl away in fear.
The man did pause for a second but he still came towards me.
"NO! STAY BACK!" I screamed and swung my hand in the air at him as a motion for him to stay away. But when when I did that, a burst of fire came shooting out of my palm and went flying towards the little man.
A look of pure shock flashed onto his face before he suddenly conjured up more the same golden sand out of nowhere and morphed it into a large golden shield. The fire hit the shield, but the golden object was able to protect its conjurer. Once the fire dissipated, the shield melted away and flowed around the little man like golden ribbons.
Something inside of me started to scream like a siren. 'Sand'... 'Danger'... 'Very bad'... "RUN!"
The little man looked shock and unsure, but he tried to come closer to me again, but there was no way I was going to let him anywhere near me. I tried to push myself up again, but my legs were weak and shaking like jello. I kept tripping and falling, so I tried crawling away. Terror screamed in my mind like a siren going off as I sense how much danger I was in. I was too weak and exhausted. I can't outrun this guy with my condition right now. My mind went nuts, trying to think of a way to escape. I was scared out of my mind. My hearts was hammering like crazy. I wanted to be anywhere, but here. Anywhere far away from this man.
"I said STAY AWAY FROM ME!"
Suddenly, I felt my whole body burning up and a wall of fire burst around me like a shield. As if the fire heard my plea, the fire enveloped around me like a cocoon and everything around me went dark.
~Sandy's Side~
The sight of the glowing orange light in the distance was what lured him to the burning building, but never did he imagine he'll end up finding someone he thought would never see again.
Sandy arrived at the scene when he spotted a figure on the roof top. He almost thought that it was someone that was trapped due to the fire and was in need of help. Upon closer look, it was a kid. Actually, a teenager to be exact. Being the Guardian of Childhood, seeing a child or even a teenager in trouble triggered Sandy's instinct to save them. Sandy tried to come up with a way to save the teenage boy since a boy his age shouldn't be able to see him and he himself can't touch him. Sandy tried to think of something quick to save him, but before he could come up with anything, something completely unexpected happened.
The boy was controlling the fire.
At first, the boy just merely stood there on the roof with his hands stretched out towards the fire that was coming out of the door. Then before his eyes, the fire started to slowly die down and disappear.
Sandy was shocked. He did not expect to see what he saw just now. He has seen something like this before so he knew what was happening. The boy made the fire disappear with his own will like magic. There was no doubt in his mind that the boy was controlling the fire.
He was in disbelief, confusion, and shock. But most important of all, he felt a small sense of hope.
Could it be? Was it him?
That little light of hope lit inside of him like a candle. There was nobody else he knew that could control fire. Not to mention, this was Blacksburg. There was only one known being that can control fire that used to live in this town.
Jack O. Lantern, the Spirit of Fall and Fire.
But then there was also a chance that he could be wrong. It wasn't like there was only one fire spirit that ever existed. There were others, but not very many that Sandy has heard of. So there was a chance that it was just a wandering fire spirit that just happened to be in the area.
But the only way to find out who this kid was was to confirm it himself.
Once the fire finally disappeared, the small figure suddenly fell onto his knees and hands in exhaustion. Immediately, Sandy was jolted with worry and he quickly flew down towards the teenager. On top of that, he also wanted to confirm his suspicion.
As Sandy got closer, the boy must've sensed his presence, because he suddenly turned his head towards him. That's when Sandy saw his eyes. Those eyes were staring at him with wide eyes... glowing bright yellow eyes.
It was Lantern. It was Jack O. Lantern! It really was him! There was no more doubt in Sandy's mind that the boy in front of him was the fire spirit he knew and love. But he also notice something off about him as well. That face and glowing yellow eyes were definitely Jack O. Lantern's. But his hair... Of course, it was still wavy and slightly long just like the last time he remembered, but his hair wasn't flaming red... it was black... Black like Cinder's.
Now Sandy was even more confused. So was this Lantern... or Cinder? Who was this boy standing before him?
But whichever one this boy was, Sandy didn't really care. He was just too overjoyed at the thought that the Fire spirit has returned. The boy was back. Sandy couldn't be anymore happier than this. Actually, he was so happy that he just flew towards boy without thinking. Which Sandy found out later that it was a wrong move.
The boy suddenly stood up and fell backwards with fear in his eyes. "No! Go away! STAY AWAY FROM ME!" he shouted, as he tried to push himself away from the Guardian of Dreams, causing Sandy to freeze in shock and confusion. Why was the boy looking at him like that? Was that fear? Sandy wanted to tell the boy that he wasn't going to do any harm as he tried to slowly get closer.
"NO! STAY BACK!"
Then the boy sent a blast of fire towards him and Sandy had to conjure up a shield with his dream sand out of reflex. He was able to block the fire blast just in time, so he didn't get burn. When he dissolved the shield, he found the boy trying to get away. It seemed the boy was too exhausted, because he could barely stand, much less run. So in the end, he resorted to crawling.
The look of fear and terror on the boy's face was like that of a frightened animal. Sandy was even more confused by this behavior since he's never seen the fire spirit this scared. It was like the boy was terrified of him.
A sting of sadness pierced Sandy's heart. Almost heartbroken. Sandy didn't know what to do. He wanted to tell the boy to calm down and that there wasn't anything to be afraid of. He wanted to reach out to the boy, but he didn't want to frighten him anymore than he already was.
"I said STAY AWAY FROM ME!"
The a wall of flame burst around the boy like a barrier and enveloped around him. Before Sandy's eyes, the boy disappeared within the burning fire as if he was consumed by it. Once the fire disappeared, so did the boy.
~North's POV~
Tink! Tink! Tink!
The sound of a tiny hammer lightly hitting a carving nail echoed throughout my workshop. I made sure that every hit was gentle to not go too deep in the ice I was sculpting, but hard enough to get the shape I want. I was carving a model set of some little ponies based off of a TV show that kids these days seemed to be watching. Strangely, some of the names on the list that asked for such a pony were boys. Maybe there were girls with boys' name. Not unusual. But Bryan and Dante? Now that was peculiar... Why would boys want pony? They should be asking for robots and cars.
For many hours, I was tinkering away, trying to get this pony set done before tomorrow so the yetis can get to work on it. The yetis will have a lot of work on their hands since these strange ponies come in different colors of the rainbow! There will be a lot of painting to do.
"Vell, zhat should be zhe last of ponies," I said out loud as I stood up and stretched my aching back, cracking some spine in the process. I just finished the last model, a pony with a horn and wing, and was about to leave for bed. Hours of work was exhausting!
I began to blow out the candles that were lit on my desk. I usually work with candles around this time. Don't want to waste electricity. Once I blew out the last candle, the room went dark with only the light of the moon shining through the window. I was just about to walk out the door, when I felt the room lit up. It was a small glow, but it caught my attention immediately. When I looked back in confusion, I saw a candle was lit.
That's strange. Maybe I didn't blow it out right. I went back to the table to put it out again. I blew out the flames and was about to turn back to the door. Then another glow of light caught my attention again. I looked back. Another candle was lit.
Now this was getting more and more strange. What was wrong with these candles? I went to that candle to blow it out as well, but just as I was about to take a breath, the candle that I just blew out a few seconds ago lit up again.
This definitely wasn't a normal phenomenon. I stared at the candle suspiciously, wondering what was going on. The flames were being relit on their own, but what does this mean? Was this supposed to be a sign? A message?
Candles... Flames... Fire...
Fire?...
A sudden thought came to me. Does this mean what I think it means? Something inside of me was telling me that I was onto something. Even my belly was agreeing with me. I turned to the window where Manny was shining through the glass frame, asking for an answer from the bright orb in the sky.
Manny was silent as he usually was. Rarely uttering a word, even to the guardians themselves.
"Has he returned?" I whispered to the bright round orb, hoping he would hear me.
And on the surface of the moon, I could almost see a confirming smile.
~In a dark woods somewhere~
Within the dark woods of a moonless sky, a loud bang shattered the silence and a flash of yellow and orange light burst out of nowhere. Then a body of a boy appeared and fell onto the ground with a loud thud.
The boy didn't move. He was unconscious from exhaustion and panic. To teleport himself when his body was already stressed out was too much for his body to bear. He laid there in slumber as his body tried to regenerate the energy that was lost. Not to mention, he was also slightly injured, so it will take some time for his body back to get back in shape again.
But with him laying there, unaware of his surroundings and unconscious at that, he was completely exposed to the dangers around him. In the dark woods during the night wasn't the safest place. Nocturnal hunters could be lurking around, searching for a prey. Even now, something was watching the motionless boy from the shadows.
Hiding within the darkness of the trees, a large dark figure stood watch over the boy silently. Owls hooted in the distance and leaves rustled as the wind breezed by. After awhile, the dark figure finally walked out of the shadows and towards the slumbering fire spirit.
Thank you for reading. Please comment or leave feedback or suggestions.
Thanks to RainSonata for helping with editing and proofreading.
Chapter 6 is still currently awaiting to be proofread by my friend, but both of us are very busy with university stuff right now so I don't know when I'll be able to post it. So after chapter 5, it will no longer be a weekly update from now. It will only be posted when it's done. Sorry again guys.