Fire!
Jessica
I was walking across a huge barren desert,
the sun beating down on my back. The heat was strong, so strong that the
air around me was hazy. I could feel the sweat running down my forehead,
dripping onto my face. I was trying to wipe it off, and failing. That heat
could consume anything. I knew it would consume us, eventually.
A name of the place floated into my
mind from somewhere. The Burning Desert. Well, it didn't make sense. I
must've been confused. As hot as the place was, it surely wasn't burning.
Or was it? I couldn't tell anymore. Something told me I'd been in the desert
for a very long time, yet had also just arrived. As I said, it made no
sense.
Thirsty, I reached to take a swig of
water from a water flask hanging from my waist, but, to my despair, it
turned out to be empty. I tried to ignore the thirst that was slowly killing
me and looked out at my surroundings.
Far ahead of me I could make out the
shimmering outline of a giant golden pyramid. Faintly I could see patterns
on the walls. We walked towards it eagerly for relief from the terrible
sun. The three of us.
For the first time I noticed the people
around of me. To my left was Luke. He was carrying some strange object
that was giving off a faint red light. I wondered what it was. For some
reason it seemed important.
To my right was a girl I'd never seen
before. She had hair as black as night and darkly tanned skin. She looked
back at me and I cringed under her gaze. Her eyes were glowing orange.
In front of me a Charmander trod along
wearily. I seemed to understand that it was leading us somewhere. Where
it was, I had no idea.
We continued to head for the pyramid.
But no matter how long we travelled, we didn't seem to be getting any closer.
Still, we walked and walked. We could
have been walking for an eternity or a few minutes. Time no longer seemed
to exist.
Suddenly, Luke collapsed to the ground,
breaking his fall with his hands. The thing he was carrying went flying
and disappeared into the sand. He screamed out in pain, and I suddenly
saw why. The skin had been burnt off of his hands. I could see the flesh
inside, with the bones and blood as well. I shuddered in horror. The sand
was on fire. This desert really was burning. I knew faintly that this must
be a dream, but it all seemed much too real. Definitely far too dangerous.
I helped him up. Blood poured out of
his wounds. Quickly, I ripped off the bottom of my T-Shirt and bandaged
his hands with it, hoping to cease the bleeding. With the help of the strange
girl and me he walked along with us. The girl gave him a drink from her
flask, and I suddenly knew with a sinking feeling in my stomach that was
the last of our water. I knew we wouldn't last much longer. Yet I'd known
that from the start, and we'd survived this far. The only thing was, I
couldn't remember the start anymore. I could hardly even remember who I
was. The sand was endless. We'd been walking forever. Who was I kidding?
There never was anything else.
Suddenly, the pyramid was right infront
of us. It was more of a temple than a pyramid. On the walls there were
pictures etched into it. The pictures took a moment for me to understand,
but once I did, I wish I didn't. They were of people. Not just ordinary
people. These people appeared possessed. They were jumping into golden
fires. Sacrificing themselves for the sun god, who was watching approvingly.
Despite the intense heat, I shivered. There was something about this whole
place that gave me the creeps.
There was a large opening in the side
of the Pyramid. We quickly climbed into it and rested. It was hardly any
cooler inside the large structure than outside in the desert, but at least
we couldn't get burnt any worse. I thought with a sigh that my skin would
never be the same. Suddenly I laughed. We were trapped in the middle of
a giant desert with no real way of escape and I was worrying about my looks.
The others looked at me strangely.
Putting that out of my mind, I stood
up and had a short look around. The room we were in was fairly small, but
I could see an archway, which led into another room. The inside of the
Pyramid was quiet and dark. The air smelt of blood.
Curious, I wandered into the other
room. This one had more light, for there was a tiny window high up. This
room appeared to be some sort of art gallery. There were more carvings
on the walls. These ones were of what appeared to be a Pokemon. It was
a large bird, and seemed to almost glow in the pictures. For a second I
thought it was on fire, but then I realised it was made of fire. I would've
looked at more, but Luke called out from the other room.
"Hey, look at this!"
He had walked over to the other side
of the room. He seemed to have gotten over his burnt hands, at least for
the moment. I could see the blood still seeping through the bandages, even
in the dim light.
Infront of him there was a large coloured
picture scratched into the wall, with hieroglyphs surrounding it. The picture
appeared to be of a glowing stone, like the one Luke had been carrying.
This stone also had a fiery colour. Next to the picture of the fiery stone,
there was another picture of the great Firebird. It appeared to be guarding
it. Above it all there was a six-pointed star. I walked over next to him
and studied the picture carefully. I could see an inscription on the stone
above the holes, Which was written in faded English. It read:
"This temple be the guarding place
of Burning Light, The Element Stone of Fire. The stone gives thy Sage of
Fire great power. The Guardian, Kusaui, who is thy Fire Bird, will always
protect the Stone. Shalt terrible misfortune meet Kusaui, let thy gods
help us all."
I was fascinated with the writing.
Although it made no sense to me, it seemed to have a special importance.
I reached out for it but before I could touch it a hideous sound made us
freeze in horror. Slowly, ever so slowly, I turned around to face the creature.
Peering at us out of the darkness a pair of brilliant blue eyes watched
us. A laugh ran out through the air and echoed through the building, bouncing
off the walls and making it sound as if there was not one, but millions
of creatures laughing. Now that truly scared me. The laugh was pure evil.
"Beep!.....Beep!.......Beep!.......Beep!.......Beep!"
Moaning, I half opened my eyes. I reached
out to turn my alarm off and touched something else instead. Vapor had
been pressing a button on my Pokedex.
"Go back to sleep," I muttered, putting
a pillow over my head. The room was unusually warm.
"Beep!.........Beep!..........Beep!.........Beep!......Beep!"
"Could you please stop that," I said,
sitting up to turn my Pokedex off. Suddenly, I was totally awake. Fire!
My room was alight! Orange flames were everywhere, eating up the plain
wooden floor like it was nothing. Vapor had been trying to wake me up.
To warn me about the fire. But I had no time to worry about that.
I looked around franticly for somewhere
to escape the flames. In the corner of the room I spotted a puddle of wax
in the corner of the room. I stared at it for a second, confused, then
suddenly realised what it was. I'd forgotten to put the candle out. The
flames were worst on that side of the room.
Before I could react, the edge of the
bed caught on fire as well. I backed in to the corner in terror. I've always
had a fear of fire since I was seven, and then was no exception. Vapor
quivered at my side. The fire quickly ate up the thin mattress, racing
towards us.
The flames continued to approach. When
they were so close I could've reached out and touched them, Vapor suddenly
put them out with a spurt of water. But, that couldn't keep them away forever.
After a while Vapor began to tire. I knew the next time it got close it
would get us. I coughed from the smoke that filled the room.
"Get into your Pokeball," I managed to
say between coughs. Vapor refused. I open my mouth to argue but I could
feel the smoke flood into my lungs. Suddenly I felt a sleepy daze cloud
over my brain. No need to fight it. I'd just have a lie down. It would
all be over soon. I breathed in the smoke again and again. It was almost
pleasant. I could just relax. I didn't even have to breathe anymore.
The last thing I remember seeing is Luke
barge into the room with a fire extinguisher before I passed out.
