Chapter 6: The Hottest Fire
It's so warm Clara thought to herself as Kento carried her through the valley of ash and lava Ryo must be nearby…
"Ryo is close by I can feel it." Sage said as he closed his eyes and his kanji appeared on his forehead
"Rowen I know how you feel about me using my powers but I must use my powers one more time to save Ryo." Clara said softly as Rowen stared straight ahead, ignoring her.
Yes, but will happen then? Rowen thought quietly to himself as the group stopped for the night and began to setup camp.
"Earth to Rowen…Rowen Hashiba come in please." Kento said as he waved a hand in front of Rowen's face. "Man I'm worried, this is weird even for Rowen." Kento said in concern as he distractedly ran a hand through his thick dark gray hair.
"He's been thinking a lot about Clara lately," Cye said as Rowen continued to stare off into space. "he's afraid of what will happen if Clara uses her powers to revive Ryo. You wouldn't be able to get him to admit it though, he's always been like that, I only know because it's constantly been on Clara's mind."
"And it's obvious to everyone but Clara that he's deeply in love with her, but he'd never admit it." Kayla sighed as she made her bed for the night.
"In his mind he's trying to protect himself by refusing to admit he's in love, but he shouldn't hide his feelings from her." Sage said sadly as he watched his friend stare off into space.
Later that night, Clara had been having a bad dream where she saw her friends being tortured and she couldn't do anything to save them. "Wildfire I have to find wildfire…Tiakall take me to Ryo. The search ends tonight."
Slowly Tiakall dragged Clara through the mountainous ash terrain until she came to a volcano that was much larger than the others and stopped. As she probed the area with her mind, she could sense the young man who was sleeping within the monstrous volcano and knew what she had to do. "Awaken Warrior of Wildfire." She whispered solemnly as a cry pierced the air.
"CLARA NO!!!" Rowen screamed as he felt her release her energy, but it was already too late. As quickly as he could, he ran to her side and held her in his arms as lava spewed forth from the volcano behind them. "Clara why…why did you do it?" he cried as he felt her body slowly turn into stone.
"Because the needs of the many outweighed the needs of the few." Clara whispered softly as she gently reached forward and brushed Rowen's hair away from his face. "Rowen I have no regrets I want you to know that. I also wanted you to know that…" here she trailed off as the rest of her body turned to stone and Rowen began to sob until his body shook.
The others could only look on in shock and disbelief as Rowen sobbed and mourned the loss of his love.