Jewel bursted into a grove she didn't recognize; but it looked vaguely familiar. She didn't know what one it was because it was on fire. The trees burned, and where flames didn't possessed them, the trunks were charred black. The foliage on the ground had been burned away, leaving stabbing stalks of burnt grass that was still warm underfoot.

Jewel lost energy. Her wings collapsed inwards, and she ended up tumbling to the floor. Through the sharp grass she went, until she came to a stop. Jewel gasped, laying limp in the earth. She tried to breathe, but the scent of smoke and petrol was everywhere, invading her lungs, strangling her on the inside. Jewel rolled onto her front, slowly pushing herself off the ground with shuddering wings. Her head hung like a broken doll's, as she coughed over and over.

Rojo landed clumsily a few feet away, staggering as though intoxicated. He clung to a branch to support himself, spluttering on smoke, but then his yellow gaze fixed on her, consumed with madness. Jewel forced herself to her feet, determined to hide her weakness.

"Why couldn't you just leave us alone?" Jewel spat. She seized a branch off the floor, and swiped it towards Rojo, but he dodged. Regardless, she still tried, even when he caught it in his talon. Jewel tried to free her weapon, but being burnt, it shattered at too much pressure. Rojo lunged, and she screamed at him, losing her her mind for a brief moment. "Go away!"

"You think I'd let your wretched family get away with all they've done to me?"

"We did nothing!" Jewel shrieked, trying to see another branch, some sort of weapon she could use. She came up to Rojo's shoulders and was probably less than a third of the weight. It was hopeless thinking she could attack him without killing herself, and she was too exhausted to fly. Not that she could fly anyway - the burn on her wing caused searing pain and the smoke meant she wouldn't be able to see where she was going.

"Nothing? Your family poisoned my mate! Your mother was all over her, infecting her!"

"You're crazy! Don't you think if my mom had had it, she'd be dead by now?" Jewel leapt upwards onto a higher branch as Rojo lunged. He crashed into the pile of debris, which showered onto him in fragments and splinters. Jewel, weak, could barely perch straight. She was oddly delirious, but it wasn't just because she was exhausted. It was as if she was in some sort of translucent dream, that she'd always be haunted by, and that she couldn't escape."I don't understand! We were perfectly happy with leaving you alone. Why couldn't you do the same?" Rojo looked up, eyes stinging from smoke.

"Your father warped my mind. Because of him I suffer with pain, and almost every day, I have to shut myself in the dark to make it stop. Before he struck my head, I didn't even think of committing this crime." Crime? A fire wasn't, unless someone started it. Jewel forgot that phrase, not realizing it meant something. "And your mother killed my mate."

"She was Perlina's friend!" Jewel snapped. "She didn't infect her. I suppose Perlina had a lucky escape, though! Who would put up with a creature like you?"

Rojo's eyes reflected the flames, making his fury all the more clear. The yellow seemed to have turned red, more like evil, rather than the reflection of fire. But then he leapt at Jewel, taking her completely by surprise. They went crashing down a fallen tree trunk, which had broken from the stump and fallen down, coming to rest on a downward slope, meaning they tumbled. It was black and charred, and scratched them both. They were stopped from falling into a pool of flame by some tree branches. Jewel clung to her branch, rigid, realizing that had it not been there, she'd have gone falling into the fire.

But it was here Rojo snagged his claws into her and refused to let go.

"Eduardo needs to know what it feels like, to lose someone he loves!" He tried to strike her with his other free talon, but Jewel managed to stay just out of reach, dodging by centimetres, his claw still attached to her wing. She screamed at him to let go, a trail of blood slowly making its way down her wing. It wouldn't be long before his talons struck something important, like an artery.

Suddenly, a red comet streaked from the corner of her eye, and Rojo was torn away from her. He fell to a lower branch, managing to snag himself before he fell into the flames; but he screamed briefly, for part of it had been on fire. Jewel struggled blindly as she was dragged backwards a few moments later, an unseen pair of wings hauling her up the fallen tree trunk, back to the tree stump and then to the ground. Jewel leapt to her feet and spun round, not knowing what to expect. Instead she was in for a shock.

"Adelaide?" Her friend who she thought she'd never see again, was standing there with fearful brown eyes and sooty feathers. For a moment Jewel was confused, but then it dawned upon her. Adelaide had saved her. She came back. For a moment Jewel stared, unsure how to react, but then she forgot everything - the argument, the mistrust and all the stress - and hugged her friend. Adelaide threw her own wings around Jewel. This union between red and blue was only for a heartbeat, as a showering of ash reminded them of where they were. "Adelaide, I -"

"Tell me later. Let's get out of here!" Adelaide pulled her wing and Jewel staggered after her, but then there was a loud crack behind them. They spun round, realizing to their horror that Rojo wasn't still trapped. He'd hauled his way up the fallen tree, despite the huge angle and steepness, and now he stood where Jewel had, bleeding more than ever. His feathers were singed and blackened, his beak whitened by so many new cracks and chippings they both thought it was a few hits from shattering into fragments and ceasing to exist.

Now Jewel and Adelaide saw him completely. A large burn splashed across his throat and chest, red and raw, feathers torn out, his face savaged by Jewel's clawing of self defence. He was mutilated, and if he survived, he'd be that way forever. The scarring would never fade, the injuries too deep. His exterior finally - entirely - matched the true monster within, a monster nurtured by grief, madness, and the inability to let go. His speech was no different from how he normally spoke, except it was more sinister than ever.

"I knew there was something off about you! Traitor!" Rojo gave Adelaide a look of pure poison, seeing her wing on Jewel's. Adelaide tightened her grasp, and spoke bravely.

"You're no leader to me! I'm going to go, and tell them what a piece of work you really are!" Adelaide had to cough at the end of that sentence, the smoke infecting her lungs. But there was no where they could go. It was just Adelaide and Jewel, trapped in a circle of flame through which there was no path. Smoke and a flaming tree canopy above, the fire climbing so high it closed them inside the inferno. Cinders fell like an endless rain, burning them every few moments, but they barely felt the pain.

"You've got no where to go, though. Have you?" Rojo said it with malice and mockery. Adelaide looked at Jewel, stricken and full of fear.

"What do we do?"

Felipe finally escaped the smoke, his lungs twisted like a fish in netting. He could hardly breathe, but it was over. A swarm of red was there on the river banks where the lilypads were, but his relief sank. Some were laying on the ground, others crying. He saw only Caesura and Drizelle, the later crying as Anastasiya, despite their estrangement, tried to fix her broken wing. The rest of the inner circle was no where to be seen.

He scanned the crowd, searching for those he knew. His heart filled with relief when he saw Ricardo, Lena and Miguel, as well as Tambo and Delilah. But he didn't see Blanche and Mitch, and he realized that the crowd was a bit smaller than it would normally be in their drills.

The noise grew as the tribe saw him coming, saw the body he carried. Birds were sent flying as Juliana came crashing through the crowd, knowing who it was. She was screaming in hysterical worry as she couldn't tell whether Azalea was alive or dead. "She's fine!" Felipe insisted, passing Azalea's unconscious form over to her mother. He swatted away Maite and Miguel, who were helping treat the injured, and tried to catch his breath.

Juliana held Azalea in her wings, any sign of distance and coldness from when Azalea was a chick, gone. Juliana wept in relief, trying to rouse Azalea. Between, she looked up at Felipe. She thanked him over and over, and eventually Azalea stirred, twitching in Juliana's grasp. As Azalea started to wake, Juliana looked expectantly behind Felipe. But then her relief sank. A look entered her eyes, the prayer that this was just a nightmare.

"Where's my niece?" Her voice was high, like a twig about to snap. Felipe turned, thinking she'd be there. But then he went cold. She wasn't. He looked around, knowing she wouldn't be in the crowd - she'd be with Azalea and Juliana. Where was Adelaide? The last he'd seen her brown eyes, they'd been amber with the reflection of the flames. "Adie?" Juliana choked behind him.

"She was right behind me. She... she was right behind me. I swear..." He said it over and over, as though in shock. He stared into the smoke, knowing in his heart, there was no where else she could be. She was there. Adelaide was in the fire, right now, with nobody with her. There was no question of what he was going to do.

"Felipe! What are you doing? Come back!" Birds shouted in frenzy, not understanding. "Come back!" But they were ignored. Felipe disappeared back into the smoke screen, which was no longer brown, but red, as the flames reached the edge of the forest. The red tribe cowered in horror, without a leader, too terrified to move, as the sky began to bleed scarlet.