A/N: Ta-da! Bonus word number twenty-one, last word for this contest, done and done :D YAY! It's really short, but who said the longer the better? So, thank you so much to all who've read and reviewed (this is it, the real last one, you can find it in the kindness of your hearts to review just one more time - or, better yet, the first time - for this!)!

Also, I'm not sure that I'm going to leave this whole thing up forever, but would probably repost any chapter I or anyone else really liked, so if any of you liked one in particular/if you had a favorite/really hate one and want it blown off the face of the earth, please let me know :D

Twentieth bonus word: Family

I winced as the cool, scratchy cloth ran over the raw skin on my shoulders. My head couldn't process where I was, why my skin stung, and why my throat and lungs felt dry and chapped. Slowly opening my eyes, I squinted into my cot and could feel my head pounding against my ears as my mind began to gradually clear. For a moment, while the memories of my last trial came back to me bit by bit, I could almost still see the flames billowing in front of my eyes. I clenched them shut and tried to drive away the feeling that I was still in the the fiery hell on earth.

Once the raging heat inside my head had passed, I tried to roll onto my side, groaning slightly as I felt my skin crackle and split.

"Easy," a deep voice said soothingly, and a gentle hand turned me onto my stomach again.

The hand began to apply a cool ointment onto my burned back and I turned my head, still confused but wanting to see who it was. My vision had been reduced to seeing smoky shadows, and I couldn't make out the man sitting beside me at first. I blinked my eyes several times, trying to clear the haze. My brain couldn't work fast enough to think of who it could be; I knew I had been in the Hall of Flames, and I knew it was because I was taking my trials, but I couldn't remember why I was taking trials (or even what the trails actually were), where I was, or even specifically who I was. I was Darren, I knew that...but that was all.

Slowly, some of the fogginess lifted from my eyes, and I could make out the man next to me. I recognized him, but still couldn't place exactly who he was. He looked down at me, smiling, and wiped at my face with the cool cloth. When he pulled it away, there were streaks of black ash on it. I realized what bad shape I must have been in - and still was in - after the trial; this man, whoever he was, was taking care of me. I shifted painfully again on my cot, only coming up with one man who it could be.

"Dad?" I tried to ask, but my lips moved soundlessly. My voice was gone.

The man obviously couldn't make out what I had tried to say. He smiled again. "It is all right, Darren" he said, and the more I heard his voice, the more I recognized him for who he really was. Then everything - where I was, who he was, who I was - began to come back to me. "The trial is over," he said softly. "You made it."

I tried to force a grateful smile onto my face for my mentor, though for the first time in years I found myself missing my dad, and my mom and sister too, terribly.

"Gavner is here," Mr. Crepsley said, patting the palm of my left hand - the only part of me that wasn't burnt and bleeding. "Harkat and Arra were here as well."

"You did a wonderful job," Gavner's voice said from the other side of my cot. "We're all very proud of you."

The smile finally spread on my lips. I missed my old family, but I had a new family now, and they cared about me just as much.

Done :)