Heart Fire Burns Brighter

Chapter 21

"Oi! Girl!" I look at Cricket startled. "Get back inside! We will take care of them!"

"What?! But…!"

"Do as I say! This is none of your business!" He finishes forcefully.

He, Shoujou and Masira are standing side by side a little ahead, observing the approaching ship. Its flag and figurehead clearly state that it's a pirate ship.

I decide to do as he says, and get back inside the house and only come out once I know what these pirates want. 'I will only interfere if they need help. No need to aggravate the situation by being reckless.' I learned that lesson the hard way.

'This is not good.' Watching through a slit in the window's curtain, I can see a little of their soul as around a dozen of them disembark and start to talk. All of them had souls dark with greed, hatred and pride. The captain, self-entitled Hyena, was the worst of them, followed closely by his second in command. 'They definitely won't have good intentions in coming here.'

They start to threaten and insult Cricket and the others, and their intentions soon become clear.

'They want the gold these three took almost ten years of hard work to find?! How low can someone be?!'

Now knowing what they want, my stomach sinks in dread as I come to the realization that this encounter will inevitably come to blows. Masira, Shoujou and Cricket will never let the pirates take that gold without a fight.

Options quickly start running through my mind. The first of them is so swiftly discarded that someone could say it was never even there in the first place. 'As if I would even think of obeying Cricket and stay inside the house as they are out there risking their lives!'

I consider the second one for less than half a minute before it is made impractical when the fighting starts. By the time I would have been able to find the others in the forest and run all the way back, the dispute would be over, one way or another, and the help I went to find would be useless.

In the next few moments, my tight grip on the windowsill and nearby wall relaxes a little, as the fight seems to be going in our friends' favor. The subordinates are being defeated swiftly without much trouble, even the second in command with his hatchet. However, I notice that the leader still has a smirk on his face, full of smugness and condescension, and my gut twists anew in concern for the Saruyama Alliance.

I'm frozen by what I see next. The Hyena's lower legs somehow spiral on themselves, and then he is pressing down on them as if they are springs. I watch as he launches himself towards Masira using the propulsion he just gathered. The devastating blow into Masira's back makes blood come out of the man's mouth and drives him forward to the floor.

'Merlin! Is that a Devil Fruit power?!'

Using the falling man's head as a springboard, the Hyena launches himself again, this time towards Shoujou. The second brother is hit in the face by a punch in which all the strength of the pirate's momentum was focused, and is thrown away violently, ending in a painful roll on the ground.

The next attack is aimed at Cricket, but having had a little more warning, he dodges it. The Hyena continues to fly on and uses Merry's side to bounce back towards his original target. A big part of the ship is broken off in the collision, and even worse, this second attack is successful and Cricket falls down painfully.

I suddenly take in a huge breath, not having noticed I was holding it until now. All of that happened so fast, my frozen mind could do nothing but watch. Now, however, it felt like I was alive again, and my heart hammers in my chest, spreading adrenaline filled blood through all my limbs.

I'm moving before I notice it, running towards the door, fully intending on doing something, anything, to help them. As I move to open the door, however, it is opened from the other side, and I come face to face with two of the subordinates.

I back down swiftly, my eyes running around the house for a way out. As their eyes change from wide in surprise to narrowed in determination as they shout and move forward to, no doubt, try to catch me, I dodge and wave out of their grabbing hands and run back to the window.

I jump through the curtain head first, and end falling to the grass covered ground outside in a roll. Years of running around in robes helping me immensely in avoiding tripping all over my long dress. 'Thank Merlin for the Wizarding World's outdated fashion sense!'

I stand up from the crouch I finished the roll with, only to come face to chest with the blonde bastard himself. 'Shit!' I look up at his face as I try to back away from him, but behind me I can hear the voices of the two idiots that were inside the house. Looking around through the corner of my eyes, I see that I am now surrounded on either side as well. Anger bubbles inside my chest, though, as I also spy our three hosts on the floor behind him.

"What a pretty find the guys uncovered inside the house!" My fear at his compliment to my appearance is ignored in face of my anger. "Who are you?"

"None of your business!" I bit out through my teeth. Warily observing his smug expression change to anger, I notice too late. Before I can dodge, his second in command grabs my arm in a bruising grip, and drags me towards himself. I let out a hiss of pain at the harsh handling, and try to tug myself free, but it is useless. Even after a month of good food, I hadn't caught up to my old weight yet, and I was never a strong girl to begin with.

"You will show Bellamy some respect, girl, or you will be sorry!" He yells at me. His face red in anger as he threatens me with his hatchet.

"Now, now, Sarkies, no need to rip off the girl's arm." Bellamy says reproachfully, while smirking in what I knew to be delight. He nods towards his subordinate, and I'm let go, though he pushes me forwards as he does it, closer to the blonde devil.

"You seem to have spunk, girl. I like that. However, you should show me some respect if you want to remain unharmed." I stare blankly at him, hiding both my fear and anger at his threat. "Now, think carefully how you will answer my next question if you know what is good for you." He pauses, to see if I understood, I think, however, I'm wrong. He reaches forward swiftly, and takes a tight hold of my scarf, bringing my face closer to his before continuing speaking. "Where is the gold?"

My heart feels like it is in my throat in my fear. I don't know what to do and my mind is drawing a blank in my disgust of being so close to him. Before I can think of an answer, someone buts in on our conversation.

"She doesn't know where it is, she is just a guest." Cricket says, getting up off the floor and dusting his pants nonchalantly. "If you want to know, you will have to ask me, you spineless little shit."

Being so close to the Hyena, I can see his expressions clearly. His face contorts in fury and his eyes sparkles dangerously as he opens his mouth and lets out a bellow of rage. It doesn't give me any warning though, when he suddenly decides to forcefully throw me to the side before turning around towards Cricket and the two brothers.

I land meters away, dizzy from the jarring contact with the ground. When I finally look up, it is to the sight of an all-out fight, which doesn't look good for our side from what I'm seeing.

'I need to help them!'

'What can I do?! They are so many!'

'That didn't stop the Saruyama Alliance before, though! They were easily defeating the brunt of this pirate crew before Bellamy interfered!'

'That is it! I should focus all my strength in taking down the captain! If he is incapacitated, they would be able to take care of the rest!'

'And to stop the leader…' A list of spells appears in my head, each discarded as quickly as they come, for some reason or other, be it high power requirement, uselessness against this adversary's specific powers or whether or not it would incapacitate him for certain. 'If only I had enough power for a Stupefy, it would be so simple!'

A sudden thought crosses my mind… "Hum? Oh. People who eat a Devil Fruit cannot swim. It's awful. I can't even gather enough strength to move…" Luffy's previous words echo in my head.

'Yes! I only need to…'

Ignoring completely the ache in my body from the fall, I get up, take a hold of my dress' long skirt with one hand, and start running away from the house and to its right. 'Positioning will be fundamental!'

When I am finally at the right place, I stop and turn towards the fight again. I take a deep breath in preparation, and then another before I scream from the top of my lungs.

"HEY! YOU BLONDE CLOWN!"Most of them turn in search of the origin of the scream. I swallow dryly all my fear and doubts and stretch my mouth into a taunting grin as Bellamy looks me in the eye with his brow narrowed. Even from this distance, I can see him grinding his teeth in anger. "YOU WANT ME TO TREAT YOU WITH RESPECT? YOU DON'T DESERVE MY RESPECT! AND YOU DESERVE MUCH LESS THE GOLD THOSE THREE FOUND WITH HARD WORK! I WOULD RATHER TAKE THAT GOLD AND THROW IT BACK TO THE SEA THAN HAND IT TO YOU! YOU BLOODY USELESS COWARD!"

By the end of my taunt, his face is red in fury and his hands are clenched tight by his sides. I have to do nothing else as he responds immediately, giving me the only answer his short temper and huge pride can accept: violence. He pushes down on his spring-like legs, forcefully launching himself at me.

Things seem to go in slow motion after that. I see him, flying in my direction, the wind rippling around him. I can hear my heart beat loudly in my ears as I breathe deeply.

Tah-dum

'Will his momentum help or hinder me?' I try to remember the spell's theory* as I gather all the magic I can scrap from my tired core.

Tah-dum

'Object's momentum and weight versus caster's magic and will. I will need to try to make up what I lack in magic with my will, and hope it will be enough.'

Tah-dum

As he finally nears me, after what seems like an eternity, I extend both my arms in front of me, my palms pointing in his direction.

Tah-dum

'Timing will be everything. I can't miss. I can't have him dodging. With the amount of magic left in my core, this will be my only shot.'

Tah-

I concentrate all my will power in the results I desire and what is at stake, and wait for the last instant to cast. Right as we are about to touch, I chant as forcefully as I can in my mind 'DEPULSO!'*

-dum

'This is gonna hurt.' Is my thought, as I feel the shove that starts in my arms and sends me flying backwards. It seems some of his momentum passed on to me in our collision. My only consolation is that The Hyena is also flying. 'Right towards the ocean!' I think, victoriously.

The painful impact with the ground brings blinding pain to my whole back. I can hardly breathe as the momentum drags me across the floor. Awareness escapes me for I don't know how long, but when I come to, I'm awkwardly propped up against something. It could be a tree, but I don't turn around to check.

Blinking slowly, trying to focus my swaying and blackening vision, I see that the fight has started up again. Thankfully, the three friends understood my plan, and took the opportunity I created. They are earnestly fighting the lackeys, The Hyena nowhere in sight.

'Urgh…' I haven't felt so weak since the last time I was in Crocodile's hands. I can barely focus. 'I guess this spell, plus the Ascendio and the repairing spells this afternoon, after those healing spells in the morning, were more than my 'survival magic' could handle. Much more than I thought it could handle.'

'Those three should manage now. I will just… rest… for a… second…' I think, my eyes closing unbidden.

Want to find out if I really did drown Bellamy? Wait until next chapter! (I know I'm mean! XD)

*Depulso: Banishing charm. The theory about it is totally of my imagining. I hope it was somewhat logical and not too crazy. I image that the banishing charm has approximately the same power requirement as the summoning charm, so in that list of mine of the spells Sage can use, it is within range of her current powers. I know depulso doesn't need contact with the object, but I thought that the more distance the spell has to travel the more magic it spends, and Sage can't waste any. I am also considering that desperation has some influence on the reliability of the spell, as well as the fact that she has been practicing more efficiency.

Shorter, but Action packed chapter! What did you guys think?

For those who begged me not to make Sage a damsel in distress until she is free from her cuffs, I want your verdict!

Please tell me what you think about the fic so far! So few of you readers review! Today is my birthday! I would like that as a gift! Pretty please! Review, people!

Thanks to all of you who 'follow'ed or 'favorite'ed this fic or me.

Thanks to Arashi - IV of VI, CloudyFluffles, Stormbringer117, Opinr, Fancy Lala, Misterious Guest and Kitsune's Den for reviewing.

Missed you PokemonNarutoLover, my faithful reader and reviewer!

Thanks everyone for reading, and thanks BetterWithThree101 for betaing!